video newsletter... it's been almost a month since i've updated, and it's also been a month since i've made my video. man, i'm behind. i promise it'll be ready by the end of the week, though. just haven't really had a chance to sit down and put it together. now i'm starting to wonder if i should have just made it more simple and just emailed emails out. but i always found that a little bit boring for some reason.
sunburn...or something... i played in a wedding yesterday, and it was one of those outdoor morning ceremonies leading into an afternoon garden party leading into an evening dinner reception. okay i made it sound like that's a normal thing, but i promise it's the first time i've ever attended something like that. anyway, so me, along with a couple other dudes were part of their band, and not only was it incredibly fun, but it was also incredibly hot. i'm sunburned, though it doesn't really look it. last night when i got home, i was washing my face. man, i love my apricot face scrub, but boy does that stuff HURT when you've got a sunburned face. hahahaa. stupid little granules. luckily tonight i used my non-granuley facewash to wash my face, but now my face is dry and it hurts even MORE because it's dry. what the heck.
weddings...marriages...arranged ones... recently (and by rececntly, i mean within the past 1/2 year), i've had a couple men thrown my way by means of mothers, pastors, you name it. what is it about age and getting married. i mean, yeah, i want to get married, but to be honest, i don't want to be "introduced" to my husband. "so how did you meet?" "oh, we were introduced.". what the hey??? it just sounds so....boring. hahaha. and God knows i ain't no boring person. heehee. so anyway, one other thing iv'e noticed is that all three of these guys are all....you guessed it...pastors. two of them are worship pastors. as good as that sounds on paper, i'm thinking to myself...did i ever SAY i wanted to marry a pastor??? negative. i did not. you never heard me say it. in fact, it's OTHER peopel who have told me that they think i should marry a pastor. but it was never on my heart to do so. i just don't see myself as a pastor's wife, and i really don't think i'm capable of it. it's a hard job! another thing that irks me to the Nth power is when a friend says to me, "oh, i have this REALLY cool and good guy i want to introduce to you! he's such a good catch!" hmm. i'm thinking, "if he's such a great catch, why didn't YOU take him??" huh?? huh???? HAHAHAHA. anyway, *sigh*. dont' have time to think about that stuff. just praying for it.
busy busy busy beeee...zzzzzz.... that's not a "zzzzz" for sleeping, that's a "zzzzz" for a bee. from now until probably august, i will be a busy bee. honestly, i'm not looking forward to it, but because i am excited about the summer team, well...it all goes hand in hand, so it all has to be done. sometimes i wish my gift was not in administration. speaking of which, do you ever wonder why God gives you certain spiritual gifts? and do you ever ask God to just exchange that gift with another gift? hahaa. i suppose God doesn't bargain that way, but sometimes i wish i didn't have certain gifts. i'm not complaining, though...just looking for variety. hahahaa. :)
...or at least trying to. this past weekend i realized...in this entire week, i didn't have a single moment to myself. with the busy-ness of my schedule and now things just getting even mroe busy, i wonder if God is answering my prayer about having LESS of me time. last year, my first year here in taiwan, i had so much "me" time that i wanted to spend time with people. this year, i have so much people time (sometimes involuntary), i want more time to spend with myself. is that selfish? i need to unwind somehow.
i normally designate friday as my "day off", but this past week, it didn't happen. my day off turned out to be an ENTIRE day with people. i suppose at the end of the day, i don't mind, but man, it made me realize that i've gone pretty much 3 full weeks without having a single day to myself. of course, you can count sleeping, which i think is a necessary unwinder, but i also need time to just walk around on my own, or just journaling or something.
this past week, i've also been having all these random weird dreams where they feel SO incredibly real that i'm crying in real life!! except that i can't wake myself up from the dream, even though i'm clearly aware that i'm physically crying!! it's weird. the entire past month has been like that.
i don't know what the purpose of this xanga post is. i suppose i just looked at my page and wanted to update, so i thought of the first thing on my mind...i need a day off. or somewhere to get away for a bit. and yet the conclusion to all of this is...there isn't time for that until THIS friday. *sigh*...pray for me.
it's been a while (LONG while) since i've updated or even visited xanga. you can blame that on my eventual joining of facebook and well, time. *sigh*. i used to have a lot of time to just sit and read people's xangas and stuff...and now since my "job" requires me to be out all day, i just don't have time to sit in front of the computer and read anymore. but i've decided i still WANT to...just that it's been a while since i've had the chance to. but since i do have a day off (which is usually spent catching up on my sleep), i've also decided that i'm gonna start reading people's xangas again so (sadly) i can know what's going on in their lives. yay, aren't you proud? hahahaa.
SOooooo. taiwan. hahaha, i just love this place. last month, i had my 10 year old filling in the back tooth pop out when i was eating something. i went and got it refilled for only $150NT = $6.00US. hahahahaa. gotta love this island. and then yesterday i decided i trusted the dentist enough to get a teeth cleaning as well, so i went back and got one. same price. although...i gotta tell you - the "teeth cleaning" was more like "teeth wash & spray" and technically if i wanted to brush and floss with water, i didn't need to pay someone to do that for me. hahaha. but i guess that explains why a lot of taiwanese people here have pretty unhygienic teeth. because they don't usually get their teeth cleaned (i asked), and even if they did, it's not really cleaning!!! hahahaa. so i guess only the filling was worth it. although i've had a couple friends here get their wisdom teeth pulled for insanely cheap prices too.
Gooooogle earth. man, i have been playing with this application the past two days and marking every single place i know of. AHHAAHA. it's so much fun!!!!! they even have the stars and galaxy maps now. pretty neato. you can even level yourself with what you're looking at, so i went to China and pretended like i was standing on the Great Wall! AHAHAHA. yes, i'm quite easily amused.
anyway, will update more often. :) hope everyone's doing great :) ps - i don't really like this new xanga format with the email box looking thing.
as part of my education in psychology, we were taught to write down our
thought processes when we're tired or stressed and see if there is a
chain or link between them. also because people who have random train
of thoughts really realize that it's NOT so random. every thought is
connected in some way!
here's what i'd written down from about
230pm on...i think i missed some stuff b/c i'd forget what i'd thought
about if i didn't immediately write it down:
. i know i'm exhausted when, two days in a row, i stand at a crosswalk...and don't cross b/c i'm too busy just...standing...
.
i also know i'm exhausted when i wash my hair twice because i can't
remember if i'd just washed it 2 minutes ago. well, at least my hair
smells good.
. i realized that i cry really easily now. well,
i'll say "weep". i weep reallly easily now. i used to never cry in
front of people, but after i had a big breakthrough in college, the
tears just never end! i cry listening to stories, i cry when i share, i
cry when i watch movies, cartoons or songs...it's unstoppable. and
quite annoying, tell you. i even cried on Cheaper By the Dozen 2 when
it showed on tv the other day.
. i wore my glasses for half the
day today b/c my contacts were just murdering my eyeballs due to the
lack of sleep. it was quite a weird experience because the ground felt
like it was about to jump up and hit my face, and everything seemed
smaller than normal.
. i'm really starting to wonder if my
second calling in life is to be a professional sketch-card maker. that
is, sketching on cards to give to people. i'll bet i could make some
money from those non artistic people.
. i don't like it when
people pretend like they know me. i especially dislike comments like,
"oh, you'll really like this..." even though they probably don't know
me well enough to even assume i'd like it.
. i got my eyebrows
threaded today, and the lady threading was chatting with me. why do
people feel the need to chat with you while they're doing a service for
you? my dentist back at home used to do that while she was cleaning my
teeth.
. i like that Smack That song by Akon and Eminem. or maybe i just like it because Eminem is in it.
. no mo' drama fo' yo mama.
.
i've noticed that girls here are quite dramatic. either they play
things up a lot, OR they make a big deal out of nothing. sometimes i
just want to shake them and say, "suck it up and be a man!" but of
course...i am not a man either. but i think my way of thinking is a lot
more "man" than "woman". or as some Aussie told me, i'm a "GBB" - girl
boy boy. (as opposed to a GGG - a very girly girl).
. small group tonight. time to prepare. lots to think about. (won't share those here).
. i need to buy some more tuna/cracker meal paks from costco. and some more apple jacks.
. what i REALLY want are Cookie Crisps. that cereal was the bomb.
. prison break episode 3 should be ready...i can't wait to see michael.
. long day ahead with tons of ministry stuff to prepare for tonight.
.
the babies today were super cute, but too bad it was just too hot to
take them out for a walk. fatty was pretty good today...except that he
slobbered all over my arm and sweat through my shirt when i was holding
him.
.....and then i had to start preparing for small group,
so i decided i'd focus on that instead of letting my mind wander into
random thinking and getting distracted.
...at you. hehe, just kidding. but i DO enjoy a good laugh.
actually it doesn't even have to be a good laugh. i just enjoy
laughing. no wonder i am easily bored, yet easily entertained.
i
realized tonight that i find the stupidest and smallest things funny,
and yet, i find so much joy in those things. case in point: at costco
yesterday, i got a Kellogg's 3-pack box of Corn Pops, Apple Jacks &
Fruit Loops.
today
when i got home, i walked in the door, saw the box, shrieked, and tore
open the box and dug into my apple jacks. those things are the
shizznit, seriously. i sat there and happily crunched on them for a
good 30 minutes, occasionally laughing at myself that i had actually
shrieked in joy when i saw the box sitting on my floor.
my mom
always told me that laughing helps you live longer. if that's the case,
i'm expecting to live until i'm at least 110 years old. perhaps i'd
live even longer if my lack-of-vegetable-eating didn't decrease my life
span. oh well, i need a balance.
i enjoy being around people
that laugh. come to think of it, all my closest friends are also people
who laugh at stupid things. or maybe we're just all stupid together.
who knows. but the idea isn't even that you have to be funny. we could
be laughing at something small or something big. we could be laughing
at nothing. even nothing is sometimes funny. take seinfeld, for
example...
i usually laugh at everything someone says, dependent
on the delivery of the sentence or just the situation they're
describing or whatever. or maybe i am just laughing at them. i don't
know. sometimes i dont' even know what's so funny, but i laugh anyway,
and THAT is funny.
anyway, it's the little things in life
that, if you find joy in them, will keep you laughing til you're old.
and i want to be old.
my little laughs & things that bring me joy: . the AIDS babies i get to play with, feed, bathe and love 2x a week . when i scream or shriek b/c a huge roach just scurried across the floor . trying to catch that huge fly/cockroach/insect in my room that i spend at least 1 hour trying to kill .
listening to people tell a story and imagining in my head how
interesting it must have been. or boring. either way, i laugh at you. .
sitting at a coffee shop journaling, but also observing all the peopl
ethat walk by the window and do things that are not meant to be done in
public (ie - picking their noses, removing wedgies, etc.) . jokes. it doesn't even matter if they're not funny. laughing at the person who's telling them is just as funny. . watching funny video clips . hearing funny or embarassing stories about people . sloshing around in the rain and getting completely soaked . getting a foot massage and laughing b/c it hurts so much. . anything and everything.
